INNOVATIONS BY DESIGN : AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Ratna Chatterjee Chief Consultant

AUTOMOTIVE R&D MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Ford ‘Model-T’ (1908-1927)

The Model T debuted in 1908 at a price of $825.00

Over 10,000 pieces sold in the 1st year – and by 1914, Ford had a 48% market-share

By the time Henry made his 10 millionth car, 50% of all cars in the US were Fords

In 1925 production was at 10,000 cars a day, at a price of just $240

Model T production was finally surpassed by the Volkswagen Beetle on February 17, 1972.

Henry Ford was also responsible for the development of assembly line manufacturing processes– which he conceived of and perfected

Ford was able to reduce the assembly time of a Model T from 12.30 hours to less than 6 hours

The knowledge and skills needed by a factory worker were reduced to 84 areas

By 1914, the assembly process for the Model T had been so streamlined it took only 93 minutes to assemble a car

As a result, Ford's cars came off the line in 3-minute intervals.

Volkswagen “Beetle” (1938-2003)

In 1933 Adolf Hitler met with Ferdinand Porsche for the development of a "People’s Car“- a basic vehicle capable of transporting 2 adults and 3 children at a speed of 100 km/h, and which should cost no more than a 990 Reichsmark

The Volkswagen “Type 1”, later known as the Beetle, Bug, Volky or Käfer commenced production in 1938

With over 21 million manufactured, the VW Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single design platform, worldwide

In 1998, it was dropped from production in most of the world – but continued in Mexico and a handful of other countries until 2003

The first volume-produced versions of the car's chassis were military vehicles, the Kübelwagen (52,000) and the amphibious Schwimmwagen (14,000)

The Beetles started production in 1945 at a factory near Wolfsburg, Germany - and the 1,000,000th car came off the assembly line by 1954.

The Beetle had superior performance in its category - it was economical to maintain and, a joy to drive

During the 1960s and early 1970s, innovative advertising campaigns and a glowing reputation for reliability and sturdiness helped production figures to surpass the levels of the previous record holder, the Ford Model T, in February 17, 1972.

“Herbie” 1971 : The Super Beetle and final evolution

Introduced in May 2005 Every fourth commercial vehicle sold in

India today is an Ace A compounded annual growth rate of 39% < 22,000 units of the Ace and Magic sold

every month (more than 4.5 times the nearest competitor)

Created new self- employment opportunities – 60% of Ace owners are first-time users – who have launched goods or passenger transport operations with their vehicles

The ‘Tata Ace’

The Tata Ace developed keeping in mind – providing the last mile connectivity at a bare minimum price

All time records – 100,000 pieces sold in 20

months The Tata Ace - first Indian 4-

wheeler to achieve sales crossing 1 million in exactly 7 years and 3 months (August 2012)

The Tata Ace and the Tata Magic have a market share of 78 % in the cargo segment and 79 % in the passenger segment.

Initially launched in India – then exported to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and South Africa

Tata Motors makes 45 different applications on the Ace including water tanker, silt remover, mobile vegetarians shop, quick service outlet, rural retail outlet, mobile hoarding to name a few. Several owners have made their own creations on the vehicle over the years.

Tata Motors plans to launch six new variants of the Ace and Magic, 3 variants each of the Magic Iris and Ace Zip and 2 variants of the Super Ace over the period of next year. The company also plans to increase its dealership footprint in India from 1,346 to 2,000 in next 2 years

Koenigsegg Automotive AB

In 1994 a young Swedish Christian von Koenigsegg followed a dream to create the perfect Supercar and launched his own car company

The Koenigsegg CC prototype had a unique carbon body with a detachable roof. Despite very limited resources, the chassis, suspension, brakes, etc., were all custom designed for the car by Christian and his small team

In 2002 Koenigsegg began series production of the Guinness World Record-holding CC8S model.

The CC8S proved that it was possible for a passionate, dedicated young man to conceive and build an engineering masterpiece to rival the established Supercar brands

Koenigsegg has been producing hand-made cars, built to order, ever since.

2011 turnover 10 mil €

In a relatively short period of time, Christian and his team have become experts in their field, challenging a decades-old supercar establishment

Koenigsegg Automotive AB have introduced and patented several new technologies over the years

The Koenigsegg CCXR is the first ‘green’ Hypercar in the world, designed and calibrated to run on E85 and E100 biofuel, as well as normal gasoline.

At a price of $2.21 million, Koenigsegg Trevita is one of the world’s most expensive car

In 2009 Koenigsegg put in a bid to buy Saab from GM

Local Motors “Rally Fighter”

The Rally Fighter is the 1st crowd-sourced car – a culmination of 35,000 designs by 2,900 designers from over 100 countries

Local Motors plans to change forever the way cars are designed

Each major system of the vehicle — whether it's the exterior design, interior design or doors —are developed in an open source development process

Contests are held - and the winner receives a monetary prize based on the importance of the system to developing the overall vehicle

The buyers are invited to the company's headquarters in Massachusetts, to build the car along with the LM team

Local Motors is a new car company - working with the major automakers and not against them – by making use of parts, modules and systems from them in a new “parts-sharing” concept

The Rally Fighter uses engines, transmissions, tail-lights, handles, etc from various OEMs

Local Motors is working with automakers build the niche products they want to make but just can't because the volume isn't there to make it profitable …. And with suppliers to make their product innovations come to life – by design vehicles using their innovative technologies !

Lamborghini‘s Sesto Elemento Hyper-car is such a special vehicle, that Lamborghini had to make a unique factory just to produce them

A limited production of 20 numbers - scheduled to be ready by 2013 - have already been sold at $ 3.0 million each.

“The Lamborghini Sesto Elemento shows how the future of the super sports car can look – extreme lightweight engineering, combined with extreme performance results in extreme driving fun”

Lamborghini “Sesto Elemento” 2013

Lamborghini’s Sesto Elemento - is a technology demonstrator : 80 % of the car is CRPF Featuring a skin one-third the thickness of previous

CFRP sports car body panels, the car’s monocoque achieves the required rigidity via integrated stiffeners

Uses one-shot Forged Composites (patented) technology

Achieved Lamborghini’s objectives of – reducing the weight by 40 percent cutting acceleration from 0 - 100 kmh to 2.5

seconds from 3.4 seconds increasing the power-to-weight ratio, and the

car’s handling and performance

Lamborghini is the ONLY automaker to have mastered the complete CFRP design-to-production process in-house

2013 Hiriko Self-Folding EV

Launched in January 2012 at Brussels, the Hiriko is a micro electric car designed by MIT’s Media Lab and developed by a consortium of companies in Spain.

Designed specifically for cities, it is a 6.5 feet, 1100 lbs car that runs on two rechargeable lithium-ion batteries and can travel for 120km when fully charged.

It’s meant to be part of a shared car service operated by the city, which can be rented for a small fee.

The cars use V2V connectivity and each car can instantly be located by a smart phone.

It can be folded up and 3 Hiriko’s can fit in a standard parking space

The Hiroko's front windshield also is the car door – enabling ease of disembarking in tight parking spaces

The key feature of the Hiriko is its “Robot wheels” which allow the car to turn about 360° on the spot via hub-motors and a drive-by-wire system

At a price of $16,000, the car has attracted interest from several cities including Barcelona, San Francisco, Berlin and Malmö.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !

‘FICCI Design Innovation Conclave’ November 29, 2012

New Delhi